George Harrison, MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison over time became a devotee of Indian mysticism and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as to their Western audience. After the group's break-up he made a successful career as a solo artist, and later as a member of the Traveling Wilburys, as well as a producer of films and recordings. Harrison is ranked 21st on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Although most Beatles songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles' albums usually included one or two Harrison songs, starting with With The Beatles. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time the group broke up, Harrison had accumulated a stock of material which he then released as the acclaimed and successful triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which came two singles: the double single "My Sweet Lord" with "Isn't It a Pity" and "What Is Life". Besides his solo work, Harrison wrote two hits for Ringo Starr, another former Beatle, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys — a supergroup he formed in 1988 with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.

Harrison embraced Indian culture and Hinduism in the mid-1960s and helped broaden Western understanding of sitar music and the Hare Krishna movement. With Ravi Shankar he organised the major charity concert Concert for Bangladesh in 1971

Besides being a musician, he was also a producer and co-founder of the production company HandMade Films. In his work as a producer he collaborated with people as different as the members of Monty Python and Madonna. He was married twice: to the model Pattie Boyd from 1966 to 1974 and for 23 years to record company secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias, with whom he had one son, Dhani Harrison. He was a close friend of Eric Clapton. He is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography, I Me Mine in 1980. Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001.